Penn State supporters do care about Sandusky victims

Penn State students and others at the HUB-Robeson Center on campus watch… (Craig Houtz, Reuters Photo )

August 07, 2012

One of the first things I learned at Penn State was a little something they now call multitasking.

Since I can handle many things at once, I would like to tell everyone who accuses Penn State supporters of not caring about Jerry Sandusky's victims that I can, at the same moment, feel terrible for the monster's victims and want to ensure that no child's suffering is ever again missed — while I also question the knee-jerk reaction of the media, the NCAA, the Big Ten and everyone else who has piled on Penn State to assign punishment and blame when the court cases are not completed, all of the pertinent information is not available, and many key people have not been heard.

I can feel deep sympathy for the young men who came forward to testify to convict the monster and for those who haven't had the courage to do so. At the same time, I decry the lack of investigative professionalism in Louis Freeh's report and the press conference in which he offered up huge conclusions not supported by factual data in that report.

I can insist that ongoing investigations study the actions of every person involved with Sandusky's unfettered access to young boys, not just a cherry-picked few, with glaring omissions like the only eyewitness, the leaders of the Sandusky charity, and whoever let him adopt six boys. At the same time, I reach out to distressed fellow alumni because the leaders of the school, attended by 14 members of my family, did such a poor job of representing us in the public forum following their own pathetic handling of the whole awful situation.

I can question how any human being could have witnessed any adult sexually abusing a child without taking immediate physical action. At the same time, I feel awful for the Paterno family because the leaders of what should have been a grateful institution made the family's husband and father a scapegoat to conceal their own inaction.

I can feel deep satisfaction that the monster will rot in jail for the rest of his life at the same time that I believe the current members of the Penn State football team have been victimized for something they didn't do and feel badly for every student-athlete at Penn State whose experience will be diminished by a reduction in football revenue.

I can shudder at the perversions described by Sandusky's victims at the same time I shake with rage that the Penn State-hating head of the organization charged with enforcing the rules of college athletics would so abuse his organization's power to "punish" Penn State for not breaking any NCAA rules, while encouraging vultures from other colleges to pick at Paterno's remains by seducing players away from Penn State.

I can be proud that Penn State students have raised so much money through RAINN (The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) to help victims of abuse at the same time that I am furious with every media moron who looks down his or her nose to declare that Penn State should have been less focused on football and more focused on academics when Penn State is the only major university that has consistently done just that — at least since Joe Paterno took over the football program.

I can shake my head in disbelief that a smiling monster fooled parents, children, community leaders, fellow coaches, law enforcement authorities, his wife and everyone else into thinking he was a "great guy" who cared about kids at the same time that I shed bitter tears over what has been done to the legacy and accomplishments of a genuinely great man whom I loved, respected, and revered — and still do.

I can hate everything Jerry Sandusky did with every fiber of my being at the same time that I continue to be proud of the traditions that make us Penn State.

And I can do all of that at the same time, so don't insult my intelligence by suggesting that if I support Penn State or decry what's been done to Joe Paterno's legacy that I don't care about the suffering of Jerry Sandusky's victims.

WE ARE Penn State, and we can multitask with the best of them.

Donna Baver Rovito, who lives in South Whitehall Township, is a Penn State graduate.